Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate always trying to get back his ship, the Black Pearl, is pulled into adventures with the blacksmith Will Turner and the governor's daughter Elizabeth Swann, facing a cursed crew, Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company. The first trilogy ends with Will bound to captain the Flying Dutchman and Elizabeth waiting for him, and Jack later seeks the Fountain of Youth alone. Dead Men Tell No Tales frees Will from his curse through his son Henry, reuniting him with Elizabeth, though a shadow of Davy Jones appears after the credits.
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No. 01 · 2003 · Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl recap
Years after a boy, Will Turner, is pulled from a shipwreck, he is a blacksmith in Port Royal, Jamaica, in love with Elizabeth Swann, the governor's daughter, who secretly kept a gold medallion from his neck. Captain Jack Sparrow arrives to steal a ship and is arrested. That night, the Black Pearl, Jack's former ship, attacks the town, and its crew, led by Captain Barbossa, takes Elizabeth, thinking she is the child of a pirate named Turner. Barbossa's crew is cursed for stealing Aztec gold: they cannot die and appear as skeletons in moonlight, and to break the curse they must return every coin and the blood of Bootstrap Bill Turner, Will's father. Will frees Jack to help rescue her, and they steal a navy ship and gather a crew in Tortuga. Barbossa marooned Jack on an island years ago, and he does the same to Jack and Elizabeth, who escape by burning the island's rum.
How Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ends
At Isla de Muerta, Jack secretly takes a cursed coin so he cannot die either and duels Barbossa, while the navy fights the cursed crew. Will drops the last coin with his and Jack's blood into the chest, breaking the curse just as Jack shoots Barbossa, who dies. Jack is sentenced to hang in Port Royal, Will saves him, and Elizabeth chooses Will. Commodore Norrington lets Jack escape to the Black Pearl.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In the post-credits scene, Jack the monkey takes a gold coin from the chest and turns back into a cursed skeleton.
No. 02 · 2006 · Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest recap
Will and Elizabeth's wedding is stopped when Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company arrests them for helping Jack escape. Beckett offers Will a pardon if he brings back Jack's compass. Jack owes his soul to Davy Jones, captain of the Flying Dutchman, who raised the Black Pearl for him years ago, and the debt is due. Jones's sea monster, the Kraken, is hunting him. Jack and Will find each other in the islands, where cannibals have taken Jack as a chief. Jack sends Will onto the Dutchman, where he finds his father, Bootstrap Bill, serving on Jones's crew, and steals the key to the Dead Man's Chest, which holds Jones's heart. Elizabeth escapes on her own, and the disgraced Norrington joins the hunt. On Isla Cruces, Jack, Will and Norrington fight over the chest, and Norrington runs off with the heart to give to Beckett.
How Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ends
The Kraken attacks the Black Pearl. Elizabeth kisses Jack and chains him to the mast so the others can escape, and the Kraken drags Jack and the Pearl down to Davy Jones's Locker. The survivors go to the voodoo priestess Tia Dalma, who asks if they would sail to the world's end to bring Jack back, and Barbossa, alive, walks down the stairs.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In the post-credits scene, Jack the dog, who escaped Port Royal, is carried around the cannibal island as the tribe's new chief.
No. 03 · 2007 · Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End recap
Beckett now controls Davy Jones through his heart and uses the Flying Dutchman to wipe out pirates, so the nine Pirate Lords are called to the Brethren Court. Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth and the crew go to Singapore to get charts and a ship from the pirate lord Sao Feng, then sail to Davy Jones's Locker and rescue Jack. Will is making secret deals to free his father from the Dutchman. Sao Feng dies after making Elizabeth a pirate lord. At Shipwreck Cove, the Court elects Elizabeth Pirate King, and Tia Dalma turns out to be the sea goddess Calypso, whom the first Court bound in human form; Jones once loved her. Barbossa frees her. Elizabeth declares war on Beckett's armada.
How Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ends
In a maelstrom, the Pearl fights the Dutchman. Barbossa marries Will and Elizabeth in the middle of the battle. Jones stabs Will, and Jack helps the dying Will stab Jones's heart, killing Jones, so Will must become captain of the Dutchman, able to come ashore once every ten years. The Pearl and the Dutchman destroy Beckett's ship. Elizabeth and Will spend one day together, and Barbossa steals the Pearl again, but Jack has the map to the Fountain of Youth.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In the post-credits scene, ten years later, Elizabeth and her son watch from a cliff as the Flying Dutchman appears on the horizon with a green flash, bringing Will home.
No. 04 · 2011 · Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides recap
In London, Jack Sparrow learns someone is recruiting a crew under his name. The impostor is Angelica, a former lover, who is working for the pirate Blackbeard, her father. Jack is shanghaied onto Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, which carries the Black Pearl in a bottle among other captured ships. Blackbeard has been told he will be killed by a one-legged man and wants the Fountain of Youth to escape it. Barbossa, who lost his leg and the Pearl to Blackbeard, now sails as a privateer for King George to find the Fountain first, and the Spanish are also searching. The Fountain needs two silver chalices from Ponce de Leon's ship and a mermaid's tear. Blackbeard captures a mermaid, Syrena, who falls for the missionary Philip.
How Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ends
At the Fountain, Barbossa stabs Blackbeard with a poisoned sword, and the Spanish destroy the Fountain's temple. Jack tricks Blackbeard into drinking from the wrong chalice, so Angelica gets his years and Blackbeard dies. Barbossa takes Blackbeard's ship and sword, and Jack strands Angelica on an island. Jack and Gibbs take the bottled Black Pearl.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In the post-credits scene, Angelica, stranded on the island, finds the Jack Sparrow voodoo doll that Blackbeard made and smiles.
No. 05 · 2017 · Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales recap
Henry Turner, the son of Will and Elizabeth, wants to free his father from the Flying Dutchman's curse by finding the Trident of Poseidon, which controls the sea. Years later, as a sailor in the Royal Navy, his ship is destroyed by Captain Salazar, a Spanish pirate hunter whom Jack Sparrow trapped in the Devil's Triangle as a young man, and who now leads a ghost crew. Jack, broke and drunk, trades his magic compass for a drink, which frees Salazar. Carina Smyth, an astronomer accused of witchcraft, can read the map in her father's diary to find the trident. Henry, Carina and Jack escape execution together. Salazar forces Barbossa, now rich, to help him, and Barbossa uses Blackbeard's sword to free the Black Pearl from its bottle.
How Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ends
On a hidden island, Henry breaks the trident, which lifts all the curses of the sea. Salazar's crew becomes human again, and Barbossa sacrifices himself to kill Salazar, revealing that Carina is his daughter. Carina takes the name Barbossa. Will is freed from the Dutchman and reunites with Elizabeth, and Jack sails off on the Pearl.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In the post-credits scene, Will and Elizabeth sleep, and the shadow of Davy Jones appears in their room. Will wakes and finds it was a dream, but barnacles on the floor suggest Jones is back.
Common questions
What is the Pirates of the Caribbean story so far?
Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate always trying to get back his ship, the Black Pearl, is pulled into adventures with the blacksmith Will Turner and the governor's daughter Elizabeth Swann, facing a cursed crew, Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company. The first trilogy ends with Will bound to captain the Flying Dutchman and Elizabeth waiting for him, and Jack later seeks the Fountain of Youth alone. Dead Men Tell No Tales frees Will from his curse through his son Henry, reuniting him with Elizabeth, though a shadow of Davy Jones appears after the credits.
Where did Pirates of the Caribbean leave off?
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) is the latest. On a hidden island, Henry breaks the trident, which lifts all the curses of the sea. Salazar's crew becomes human again, and Barbossa sacrifices himself to kill Salazar, revealing that Carina is his daughter. Carina takes the name Barbossa. Will is freed from the Dutchman and reunites with Elizabeth, and Jack sails off on the Pearl.
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